Week 4: The Tools of Whiteness

Because the tools of Whiteness are deeply entrenched in our systems, relationships, and communities, they are used by anyone and everyone, although to varying degrees. It is important to consistently examine their usage in our every day lives in order to dismantle them effectively and permanently.

EMOTIONAL TOOLS
“I never owned a slave.”	This argument dissociates the speaker from the historical legacy of white supremacy and allows them to remove themselves from any responsibility for upholding and recreating a system of racial oppression. I find this argument particularly tricky to work with, especially since it usually demonstrates a complete lack of knowledge of the history of racism and the way that slavery transformed into different systems of oppression over the years (i.e. Jim Crow, voter suppression, redlining, mass incarceration). Resources such as The New Jim Crow and the film “13th” are helpful in dismantling this argument.
“Stop trying to make me feel guilty.”	Picower’s analysis of admission of guilt as admission of responsibility really resonated with me. White guilt is real, and many white people, especially organizers and activists early in their wokeness journey, focus more on their own feelings of guilt and anxiety around white privilege instead of focusing on building community and empathy with people of color who are directly affected by racism.
“Everyone is oppressed somehow.”	Focusing broadly on the ways that all of us experience some type of oppression minimizes the legacy of racism in this country. Although it is true that any experience of oppression is negative and harmful, dismissing the racial oppression faced by people of color is unacceptable.
IDEOLOGICAL TOOLS
“I don’t even see color.”	Colorblind racism is another one of the trickier “tools” to navigate. Many members of my family, and many fellow educators, use this sentence to remove any responsibility from themselves in acknowledging race. Yes, race is a social construct, but it is a social construct with very real consequences, and pretending not to notice it is an unrealistic and insensitive approach.
“Now that things are equal.”	Many, many people truly believe this. There is a line in the film “13th” by Ava Duvernay where a historian discusses how many Americans today say that they cannot imagine how people tolerated segregation and mistreatment of people of color, but the reality is that we are tolerating these very same systems today. It is just that they are more invisible and have transformed themselves into other iterations, like mass incarceration, where people are literally locked up outside of society’s view, and police brutality, which is largely unseen by folks outside of POC communities.
“It’s personal, not political.”	The personal is political. Period.
“It’s out of my control.”	This is the easiest and laziest of the tools to employ. It is so simple to think that things are out of your hands, and thus to remove yourself from any responsibility for combatting these harmful systems. White people are very much in control of the narrative and have the power to shift and change these oppressive practices.
“Just be nice.”	The Golden Rule tool is another difficult one to work through. In my experiences growing up in a white working class family that was very minimally politically conscious, this was a favorite argument of my mother’s. The idea that an open mind and a kind heart is all that is needed to make the world a better place is oversimplified at best. This removes any responsibility for learning culturally responsive approaches or best practices in multicultural and critical methods and allows white teachers to focus on a pedagogy of niceness instead.
“I can’t relate.”	This approach assumes that failure of urban education is the fault of the students and their families, not the fact that teachers are unwilling to prepare for/make changes in their own pedagogy and practice to meet the needs of their students and their communities.
PERFORMATIVE TOOLS
“Shhh.”	The silencing or sidestepping of conversations about race in white communities, and especially with white children, is very common. This was certainly my experience growing up, and continues to play out today in interactions with my family. “Can’t we talk about something nice? Something less controversial?” is a favorite sentence of my mother’s when she begins to feel uncomfortable about opposing views about race surfacing at a Sunday dinner. There is also this underlying belief in many communities that it is the responsibility of people of color to “deal with” race. The fact that one of the participants Picower’s study noted, “I’m not much of a conflict person,” demonstrates her avoidance of any responsibility for talking about race. As a white person she can make that choice. But white silence is complicity to the harms of racism and is a form of violence.
“I just want to help them.”	The white savior complex is highly prevalant among white educators, social workers, and others in “helping” fields. This approach makes the work about how it makes the white person feel, andupholds the importance of that individual’s realization of perceived “goodness” to the community at-large. Educators often construct themselves as helpers and carers who are excused from any examination of institutional racism because of their inner goodness.
“I would kiss a minority.”	This tool falls in line with the “I’m not racist; I have black friends,” argument. The idea that having relationships with people of color gets you a free pass from any responsibility for playing a role in upholding white supremacy is absolutely heinous. This philosophy also focuses on personal relationships instead of locating individuals within institutional and systemic racism.

Picower’s discussion of the “tools of Whiteness” made me think of Audre Lorde’s famous essay “The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House.” This imagery of tools and construction locates agency in the user of the tools, and confirms that using the tools requires an active choice to build and create systems of oppression. Picower’s reflection that graduates of critical education programs need ongoing support after completing their program of study is so relevant. She states that it is easy for critical teachers to slip back into harmful practices under the duress of the first few years of teaching. I have definitely seen this play out in my own practice, and I have really missed the community of support I had during college and student teaching now that I am out in the classroom on my own.

Junot Diaz’s analysis of white privilege mentioned in “Why Talk About Whiteness” is spot on: “We live in a society where default whiteness goes unremarked—no one ever asks it for its passport.” Whiteness is almost never interrogated, unpacked, or analyzed. It is allowed to flourish, almost undetected, poisoning our systems, relationships, and communities on a daily basis. Part of the work in dismantling white supremacy is asking to see that passport.

Resources

Chiarello, E. (2016). Why Talk About Whiteness? We Can’t Talk About Racism without It.

Picower, B. The Unexamined Whiteness of Teaching: How White Teachers Maintain and Enact Dominant Racial Ideologies (pp. 197-215).